Secondary towns and poverty reduction in Tanzania

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Tanzania is undergoing rapid urbanisation and the policy question is shifting from whether the country should urbanise to how it should do so.

In this brief, the researchers provide local and cross-country evidence suggesting that urbanisation can lead to poverty reduction. The researchers also find that secondary towns are better at reducing poverty than megacities and believe this is a result of their closer proximity to the rural poor.

Based on this evidence, this brief takes the position that the push to the middle-income status, which Tanzania aspires, cannot be driven purely by concentrating on growth engines in the largest cities.

It is concluded that carefully thought-through secondary town development can become an important policy vehicle for inclusive growth.

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